Harry Hole Oslo Sequence 10 - Police

away from home, serving up the lie to Laura about another extra shift, a lie which had become easier and easier to perform and which nevertheless filled his mouth and he knew that sooner or later it would suffocate him. He knew that infidelity didn’t make him a better man in Mona’s eyes and that she could envisage him serving up the same excuses to her at some point in the future. She had told him it had happened to her before with other men, that they had deceived her. And then she had been younger and slimmer than she was now, so if he wanted to drop the fat, middle-aged woman she had become it wouldn’t exactly shock her. He had tried to explain to her that she mustn’t say things like that, not even if she meant them. It made her less attractive. It made him less attractive. Made him into a man who would take anything he could get, as it were. But now he was glad she had said it. It had to stop somewhere, and she had made it easier for him.
    ‘Where did you get the coffee?’ the new nurse asked, straightening the round glasses as he read the doctor’s notes he unhooked from the end of the bed.
    ‘There’s an espresso machine down the corridor. I’m the only person who uses it but you can—’
    ‘Thanks for the offer,’ the nurse said. Anton could hear there was something odd about his pronunciation. ‘But I don’t drink coffee.’ The nurse had taken a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and was reading it. ‘Let me see . . . he needs to have some propofol.’
    ‘I’ve no idea what that is.’
    ‘It means he’ll sleep for a good while.’
    Anton scrutinised the nurse as he pierced the foil on a little bottle of a transparent liquid with a syringe. The nurse was short, slightly built and resembled a famous actor. Not one of the good-looking ones. One of the ones who had made it, though. The one with the ugly teeth and the Italian name it was impossible to remember. The way he had forgotten the name the nurse had given when he introduced himself.
    ‘It’s complicated with patients who come out of a coma,’ the nurse said. ‘They’re extremely vulnerable and have to be carefully brought into a conscious state. One injection out of place and we risk sending them back to where they were.’
    ‘I see,’ Anton said. The man had shown him his ID card, produced the password and waited for Anton to ring the duty room to confirm that the person in question had been scheduled to do this shift.
    ‘So you’ve had lots of experience with anaesthetics?’ Anton asked.
    ‘I worked in the anaesthetics department for long enough, yes.’
    ‘But you don’t work there now?’
    ‘I’ve been travelling for two or three years.’ The nurse held the syringe up to the light. Released a jet that dissolved into a cloud of microscopic drops. ‘This patient looks as if he’s had a hard life. Why’s there no name on the notes?’
    ‘He’s supposed to be anonymous. Didn’t they tell you?’
    ‘They haven’t told me anything.’
    ‘They should have done. It’s thought an attempt may be made on his life. That’s why I sit out here in the corridor.’
    The man leaned down close to the patient’s face. Closed his eyes. Looked as if he was inhaling the patient’s breath. Anton shivered.
    ‘I’ve seen him before,’ the nurse said. ‘Is he from Oslo?’
    ‘I’ve taken an oath of confidentiality.’
    ‘And what do you think I’ve done?’ The nurse rolled up the patient’s sleeve. Flicked the inside of his forearm. There was something about the way the nurse spoke, something Anton couldn’t quite put his finger on. He shivered again as the syringe slid into the skin, and in the total silence he thought he could hear a rasp, the friction of the needle against flesh. The flow of the liquid being squeezed through the syringe as the plunger was pressed.
    ‘He lived in Oslo for several years before moving abroad,’ Anton said with a swallow. ‘But then he returned. Rumours say it was because of a boy. He was a junkie.’
    ‘That’s a sad story.’
    ‘Yes, but it looks as if it will have a happy ending.’
    ‘That’s a bit too early to say,’ the nurse said, pulling out the needle. ‘Lots of coma patients have sudden relapses.’
    Anton could hear it now. Hear what it was about the way he spoke. It was barely audible, but they were there, the S’s. He lisped.
    After they had left the room and the nurse had gone down the corridor, Anton went back in to the patient. He studied the heart